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Eva’s Twentieth Yartzeit

Tonight begins the twentieth yartzeit for Eva, marking twenty one years since her death transformed our lives. Yartzeit marks the Hebrew date of her death, the 2nd of Av. Yartzeit is Judaism’s way of remembering the dead, but it is for the living. Like so much Jewish practice, its a simple thing. Each year, we light a 24-hour candle at home. At the synagogue we stand and say a prayer. We are seen; the community remembers our loss, acknowledges our pain, and supports our life today with love and respect. On this day we remember the Eva of the past, and experience her absence in the present. Its sad, what we have missed, what we are missing –yet the overwhelming feeling is one of gratitude, for the love we have today and for the privilege of having been Eva’s parent. It is what it is.